Outside Looking In

Minneota Mount Rushmore Many fans of professional sports or sports teams have been selecting the four faces they would put on Mount Rushmore in terms of athleticism or importance to the franchise.

The Minnesota Twins, for example, might put Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva and Kirby Puckett. Someone else might prefer someone like Joe Mauer, Bert Blyleven, Kent Hrbek, Jim Kaat or Tom Kelly.

The Minnesota Vikings could select Bud Grant, Fran Tarkenton, Alan Page and Randall McDaniel. Or there are numerous others deserving like Randy Moss, Mick Tinglehoff, Paul Krause, Chuck Foreman or John Randle. A particular sports such as boxing could be Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis.

A television program once had a Mount Rushmore of male and female singers and included solo acts or groups.

A pre-selected number of voters selected the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and Luciano Pavarotti as the four males. Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Barbara Streisand and Celine Dion were the female selections. There is no right or wrong. It's just a debate that is for fun. No two lists may be alike.

A state such as Minnesota could carve out the likeness of the Mayo Brothers (William and Charles), Hubert Humphrey, Charles Schulz and Charles Lindbergh. But the Mount Rushmore idea isn't just for categories such as presidents, sports teams, professional singers, inventors, movie stars, or states.

There is no right or wrong in the selection. We can make up our own rules like whether or not the selections can be living or dead, or male or female. It's just an interesting and fun thing to do. What got me thinking about this was the recent passing of Minneota icons Larry Tillemans and Les Josephson.

Bill Holm, who passed away 10 years ago, would be a good choice of one of the four names included in the Minneota Mount Rushmore monument. Holm had a myriad of talents, including poet, author, musician, orator, teacher and more. His Bug Days Variations book is the reason for the town changed the name of its annual event from Town and Country Days to Boxelder Bug Days.

Josephson and Tillemans may have each earned a place on the monument for their accomplishments, too. Josephson, who passed away on New Year's Day, is the only professional athlete from Minneota.

Josephson played 10 seasons with the Los Angeles Rams, earning a Pro Bowl bod in 1967. After he retired, Josephson became involved in the television and film industry as a consultant and even had some cameo roles. He later became a longtime radio sports commentator in Arizona.

Tillemans was involved in a significant historical event as a 19-year-old U.S. Army recorder during the Nuremberg and Dachau War Trials in 1944. Tillemans passed away on Dec. 28 and will be long remembered for his campaign to never forget the Holocaust by speaking to over 450 groups on the horrific actions of Nazi leaders.

There are many others to consider for the Minneota Mount Rushmore such as wildlife artist James Meger, politicians John B. Gislason or Val Bjornson, high school coaches Gerhard Meidt, or more currently, someone such as Chad Johnston.

Not being from Minneota, it's more difficult to come up with other deserving choices. Surely, there is a woman or two that deserve recognition. It would be interesting to see who current community members, or natives of Minneota would nominate.

Let's hear who your choices are. We won't print your name, but we would like to see a lot of recommendations. If you can't think of four people, recommend as many as you can think of. Email your choices to me at scott@thomabooks.com. We will print the list of recommended names in an upcoming issue.

Community involvement

We are currently looking at ways to get the community more involved in the Mascot, such as the Minneota Mount Rushmore (see above). A weekly hometown paper is important to a community.

While social media has taken a toll on the newspaper industry everywhere, a weekly newspaper is still a vital source of local news. Since nearly everyone takes photos wherever they go with their smartphones, one idea might be to have a fun weekly photo contest in the paper.

While just in the planning stages, it would involve readers sending us a photo of something you captured such as a beautiful landscape, something humorous, a sentimental shot, or whatever you like.

We are working on some type of a prize for the weekly winner. We also want to have a community forum to talk about the newspaper and get your ideas in the near future After all, this is your paper.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Somewhere, someone else is happy with less than you have.